One of the primary forces behind efforts to ease health care immigration rules is the persistent shortage of health care workers in the US. The shortage has gotten so severe that many believe that it will be impossible to ease the crisis without increasing the numbers of foreign nurses, doctors, therapists, technicians, nursing assistants and others from abroad. Each month we bring you the latest information on the shortage itself as well as what efforts are taking place to address the shortage, whether the solution is immigration-related or not.

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Nurse Retention and Quality Care Act of 2002 Introduced In The House 

A bill, H.R. 4654, named “Nurse Retention and Quality Care Act of 2002” was introduced in the House by Reps. Mary Bono, R-CA, and Carolyn McCarthy, D-NY. This bill includes a number of provisions such as enhancing the loan repayment program, expanding the nurse scholarship program, creating a nurse service corps and other measures intended to attract people to nursing careers. 

This bill was introduced to help and address the current national nursing shortage. A similar bill was introduced at the Senate, S. 1864. Critics say that although this bill is better than nothing, it may only have very little affectand cannot address adequately the severe nursing shortage in the country.  

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Philadelphia Hospitals To Lay Off Healthcare Workers

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia say that they will lay off approximately 200 healthcare workers in the Philadelphia area due to increased medical liability insurance costs. The hospitals claim that their liability insurance premium have doubled over the last year, and it is expected to be doubled again next year.

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Florida Healthcare Facilities Contribute To Nursing Programs  

A number of Florida hospitals and healthcare facilities are contributing one million dollars over three years to finance expansion of nursing school programs at community colleges in Florida. The additional financing will allow these nursing schools to add nursing instructors and expand their enrollment by up to 60% or 120 graduates per year.

This plan was created after Human Resource managers at hospitals met with the schools to see how could they help to address the nursing shortage in Florida.

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Study Affirms Importance of RNs To Patient Quality Of Care

A study published earlier this month at the New England Journal of Medicine affirms results obtained from a study last year that showed that higher RN staffing levels and direct RN care hours affected patients’ reduced length of stay in hospitals, fewer complications and fewer deaths due to complications.

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HHS To Give $30 Million in Grants to Address Nurse Shortage 

US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson announced a series of grants totaling more than $30 million to increase the number of qualified nurses and the quality of nursing services across the country.  

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a part of HHS, will award grants totaling more than $22 million to colleges, universities and other organizations to increase the number of nurses with advanced degrees and to help improve the quality of care for elderly patients.

The awards are intended to help to ease the shortage of nurses across the country. The funds will be given to support registered nurses studying to become nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse administrators and educators, etc. A minority of the funds (less than $1 million) will be given to help nursing schools and states to develop geriatric nursing education program.  

In addition, another $8 million have been designated for educational loans repayment of clinical care nurses who agree to work for two or three years in designated public or nonprofit health facilities facing a critical shortage of nurses.  HRSA estimates more than 400 new contracts will be made under the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program.  

For more information, please go to: http://newsroom.hrsa.gov/releases/2002releases/nursegrants.htm.  

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Florida International University School of Nursing to Receive Approximately $1.8 Million From Healthcare Facilities

Florida hospitals and healthcare facilities are to contribute approximately $1.8 million for the Florida International University School of Nursing.

The funds are contributed to the school for nursing programs and training initiatives in order to help ease the nursing shortage in Florida. One of the programs is establishing a bachelor’s degree in nursing to convert foreign physicians to nurses. Another program is for nurse anesthetist.  

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Eli Lilly Donates $50,000 to Nursing Campaign

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co. has donated $50,000 to promote nursing and healthcare career to youth and minorities through the North Carolina Center for Nursing’s campaign.

The campaign includes promotional materials such as brochures, textbooks and videos, and other materials that hopefully will attract people to nursing careers.

For more information please go to: http://www.nursenc.org/

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Tenet Healthcare Corp. To Grant $1 Million to Train Latino Nurses in L.A.

Tenet Healthcare Foundation, a part of Tenet Healthcare Corp., which operates about 30 hospitals in Southern California, has given a grant of $1 million to the East Los Angeles Community Union Education Foundation to assist Los Angeles Latino nursing schools students financially.  The funds will be given to nursing schools to help the students with their tuition and provide scholarships, computer, books and licensing fees. Some of the funds will be allocated for promoting nursing careers in local high schools. Close to half of the patients in the Tenet facilities are Latino, but a very small minority of the nurses are Latino.

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Study By Florida Hospital Association Finds Admissions Up 18% In Florida Hospitals

A new study that was published by the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) finds that hospital admissions in Florida jumped 18% over the past 6 years, topping 2 million admissions in the year 2001.

The average patient stay in the hospital remains unchanged over the past two years. The average stay for Medicare patients was 5.7 days compared to 3.8 days for managed care patients. In addition, the study shows that patient days grew 7.5% from 1996 to 10.2 million.

To see the study, please visit: http://www.fha.org/acrobat/briefjune02.pdf.

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Organizations Pressure Congress To Address Pharmacist Shortage

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) have begun lobbying pressure on Congress to help them with the shortage of hospital pharmacists that is only worsening.

A mutual letter was sent to Congress requesting legislative and other solution that would help colleges and schools of pharmacy to increase capacity and scholarships.

For additional information, please go to http://www.aha.org/

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Ohio Hospitals Report Nurse Vacancy Rates Up To 13%

Hospitals in Ohio are reported to have an average annual vacancy rate of 13% for registered nurses and 20% for licensed practical nurses, according to a new survey published by the Center for Health Affairs (CHA) in Cleveland, Ohio. CHA works to promote nursing as a career, promote positive image of nursing and improve nurse conditions and work environment. For additional information, please visit http://www.chanet.org/.

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Proposed Bill In Pennsylvania Would Mandate Nurse Staffing Ratio